Day Thirteen

[From the Philmanac - Harlan was named for Thomas Harlan, the chief proponent of the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Railroad, that once ran through the Cimarron Canyon. This railroad had big plans; however, it never made it past Ute Park, New Mexico. It ran from 1905 `til 1942; today, you can still see some of its railbed along the Cimarron Canyon. Harlan is located between Antelope Mesa and Deer Lake Mesa; it is one of the older staff camps in Philmont. In 1969, the program was Astronomy and Burro Racing. The "Mexican Dinner" was featured until 1989, when it was returned to Abreu. 12-Gauge shotgun shooting was added in 1989 (it originated at Miranda in 1988.) Harlan has one of the larger areas of responsibility at Philmont, including the various trail camps across Deer Lake Mesa. The jeep trail to Harlan is known as one of the roughest on the Ranch.]

Monday, 7/13 - Woke up at around 4:30; everything wet from a heavy dewfall and freezing cold. Still a brilliant moon illuminating the meadow, everything quiet and peaceful. Waited `til 5:00, watching the last stars fade with the loom of dawn, then got dressed. Woke everyone else around 5:05, to universal bitching about the wet and cold; Mike was particularly entertaining, jumping up and sprinting back to the campsite through the soaking wet, tall grass, yelping the whole way. Everyone else got dressed and followed at a more leisurely pace. I was amazed at how much warmer it was under the trees - no dewfall at all, 49 degrees, and a light breeze wafting from the meadow. Incredible what a difference 100 yards makes when it's between an open meadow and a forested campsite. Woke the guys in the tents around 5:15, and we did another quick camp breakdown and hit the trail around 5:50 (one of our better mornings.) The other two crews were still asleep; nary a sign of life as we departed. Hiked `til 6:15, and ate breakfast at the same spot as last year, enjoying the rising sun coming up over Turkey Creek Canyon and down the valley towards Cimarron. As I noted last year, a superior hike versus the lower trail leading to Harlan (which offers virtually no comparable views at all.) 30 minutes and on our way, quickly joining up with the jeep road to Deer Lake Mesa Camp and Devil's Wash Basin, and continuing on to Harlan. Long, steady downhill to the 4 way intersection outside Harlan, quite rocky and rutted in certain sections, especially the last steep downhill. Passed one of those sad crews struggling their way uphill under killer packs, who were all wearing full Scout Uniforms, right down to the socks and in a couple of cases even neckerchiefs - all filthy and looking very much the worse for wear, of course. As is usually the case, they were all wearing the unhappy faces of Scouts who fully realize that they've been lied to; I'll bet they burn their copy of "The Right Stuff" as soon as they get home (along with what's left of their uniforms.) If there's any justice in the afterlife, the boys in Irving who mandate the wearing of Scout clothing and gear in the Philmont training videos will be sentenced to doing Trek 26 for all eternity, dressed and packed exactly as they show (and try to sell) in the tapes. A fitting end for such idiots. I have just got to put out a "real" training guide or video tape someday; maybe I can prevent sad scenes like this. Passing their leaders (already far behind their Scouts), I tried to offer a few words of encouragement, but they didn't - or couldn't - answer, and barely even looked up in acknowledgment. The Walking Dead. I followed our guys down the rest of the hill, striding off a black cloud of seething rage in my mind - I know I shouldn't let scenes like this upset me so badly, but some things I can't help. Well. We finally reached the intersection, and turned left and into Harlan. The trail into Harlan pops over a small but steep ridge just before camp; it was noticeably beat up this year, and I figured I'd volunteer a little repair work on it to the staff at Harlan, to complete our remaining requirements for the guys still needing 50-Miler Award trail service time. At Harlan, we again took Sites 1 and 2 (unoccupied), while the Crew Chiefs and I headed down to the Staff Cabin. I was much pleased to see that last year's project (clearing all the trail-lining rocks and building three cairns at the intersection with the trail to Vaca) was intact and looking good. The head honcho ("Chris") remembered us from last year, and we enjoyed a amiable chat while getting ourselves registered, and our pre-selected campsites confirmed. We got immediate shotgun loading and shooting sessions, and also arranged another service project - not the trail service on the ridge that I suggested, but rather cutting and stripping a large number of "lodgepole" pines from the ridge facing the staff cabin in order to rebuild the burro racing fence (which had been completely taken down late the previous year or earlier that summer.) More fun with sharp implements of destruction. "Different," but what the heck.... We agreed to bring our work team down after lunch, and hustled back to the site to get everyone going on the shotgun appointments. Despite the "perfect" weather, we got everything under cover, then put the bear-bags up, and headed back down to the reloading hut. This year's instructor hailed from South Africa (which explained the unfamiliar flag hanging with the American flag on the staff cabin's flagpole), and did a good job orienting and getting everyone going. A very affectionate black and white cat shared the duties with us this year (a great mouser, but better watch out for those coyotes!) In a change, I took a break from photo duties and loaded three shells myself. With that, we headed down to the range, and after a short wait, got right into it. The instructors were happy to know that most of the crew had previously handled shotguns (which makes their lives a lot easier), and gave us the standard introduction. In order to keep things rolling, Rick and I started off handling the clay pigeon throwing machines. Speed is of the essence if you want to get 8 shots; everyone gets 5 shots to start, plus 3 more (for a dollar extra) if you have the time. Had Brad handle the pictures, from the sides of the range. Ran through the crew pretty fast on the first relay, everyone having a great time cheering the good shots, and encouraging the shooters after misses (not ragging on them.) Chris W. was 5 for 5 on the first relay; stepping away from my duties on the machine for a few minutes, I missed my first two shots, then bagged the next three in a row. We had plenty of time for the second run-through of three shots; Chris W. got his first two, but missed the last one when the instructor shifted the position of the pigeon on the throwing arm about four inches below optimum (resulting in a pronounced dart to the left.) Chris wasn't too thrilled, and shot him a glare, but as the instructor pointed out, "real birds don't always fly directly away from you, either." Next best for the day were (I think) Rick, Al and I, all of whom went 6 for 8. As always, we ended the day traditionally: the instructors got to shoot selected items from the crew, this year a hat and a T-Shirt (free air conditioning!) We gave the instructors a sincere Thanks!, and everyone headed back to camp for lunch. I stuck around for a minute to inquire if they thought Philmont would accept a donation of my shotgun (a beautiful over/under Ithaca Model 700 with ornate scrolling); they suggested I talk to Chris about it, and I took my leave. Two more crews were already moving in as I departed. After lunch, most of the crew (including myself) took advantage of the water supply to do another rinse of their nastier clothes, and hung everything out to dry again. The non-service project Scouts took advantage of the free time for some more R & R. I took a few minutes to touch up our cairns from the previous year - each needed a bit of work (probably from Scouts leaning their packs on them.) Brendan, Chris W., JT, Matt S., Al, Rick and I headed back to the staff cabin, and after some basic instruction from Chris on what he wanted, got going on the trees. Tough work! - we must have taken at least 40 trees from all over the ridge (proper spacing of the removals was critical to minimizing environmental impact.) Cutting them down and removing the branches was bad enough, but dragging them up and down the hills and out to the fenceline was just brutal. And to think I do this out of the goodness of my heart! (what a Sick Puppy!) The job was also complicated by yet another light thunderstorm about halfway through, but in this case the shower was appreciated. Rick hurt his back dragging trees down to the fenceline, but was able to continue - albeit with some pain. Finally done around 4:30 or so, with all of us three quarters dead. Chris and the rest of the staff were highly impressed and appreciative of our efforts (especially since they would have had to do it themselves sometime in the next few days), and gave us some donuts, cans of peaches and mixed fruit, and a couple of bags of potato chips as a Thank You. Good deal! I also solicited for and received permission to go get cleaned up at the staff shower again, and we all went back and did a massive hot-water "sponge bath" with our clothes, which helped revive everyone nicely (especially me!) Back at camp, Crew A had started in on dinner prep, but Rick and Al were less than thrilled to find that "B" had decided to wait for them to come back and do it for them (apparently it was their turn on the duty roster); not very Scoutlike, considering we had been busting our butts for hours, and Rick - who was exhausted and hurting - had some sharp words for them. For sure they weren't going to mind sharing in the extra food we had just earned for the whole crew, right? Well, we still had plenty of time before the burro races, and the weather had fortunately cleared up again, so the lapse into laziness was overcome easily enough (albeit not resolved.) Dinner was a very filling affair with the extra food (actually too much food), and we raced through cleanup and headed down for the races; I think Tim and Rick stayed back at camp. I dropped off some of our surplus food and our trash at the staff cabin, and discussed donating my shotgun to the camp; Chris indicated I needed to talk to Doug Palmer, one of the head honchos at BaseCamp, and we set up a meeting two days hence, since he was going to be at BaseCamp himself on his day off. I also invited him to join us for our traditional post-trek dinner in town, to which he enthusiastically agreed. With that arranged, I headed down to the burro corrals, and enjoyed one of the best set of races I've ever seen at Harlan (which is really saying something.) Only about half the crews in camp showed up, so everyone got to race on almost every relay - and they must have run 15 relays, maybe even 20 or more, the most I've ever seen here. With two entries in most of the relays, we won at least half of the races, including about 4 or 5 in a row early on, `til the staff guys started handicapping us with the slower (or more stubborn) burros. Ran for an hour and a half, almost `til dark, Great Fun! Ending that, everyone headed back to camp, and again decided on a massive meadow crashing session again, since the weather had cleared nicely. Some of the guys did a little bouldering on one of the massive boulders near the camp; the rest of us did another semi-camp breakdown, and filled everyone's canteens for tomorrow's hike; I schlepped back down to the staff cabin to drop off still more food and get another 2 1/2 gallons of water (and say Thanks and Goodbye to the staff, who were all sitting on the front porch in the dark, chatting and laughing at bad jokes.) Back at camp, the other shoe had dropped on Crew B - the meadow crashing Scouts had taken all the groundcloths from the tents, leaving none for those who were not sleeping out. After soliciting for some reasonable behavior, Rick basically lost his patience and went around and collected all of the groundcloths (which was just fine with me), letting them stew in their own selfishness. After the resulting outbreak of "teenage attitude" carried on for about 15 minutes (ignored by Rick and laughed at by Al), fatigue and the oncoming night show quieted everyone down. It was much clearer tonight than at Upper Bench, resulting in our best night views yet - 12 satellites, 5 meteors (two very large ones), and a beautiful array of stars; this all despite the fact that a good percentage of the sky was blocked by the trees alongside the campsite. I made it `til about 10:00 before sleep ambushed me. Despite the late-breaking silliness in Crew B, another fine day....